Wall heater and economizer structure



HEATER AND ECONOMIZER STRUCTURE Kans., assignor to The Cole- Wichita, Kans., a corporation of This invention relates to a wall heater and economizer structure.

Wall heaters have heretofore been employed with a heater disposed within a casing adapted to be received at least partially within a wall and with an exhaust pipe extending upwardly between the panels of the wall. It has also been the practice to employ with such a wall heater an economizer wherein additional heat is removed from the stack or exhaust pipe passing upwardly through the wall. The difliculty with such structures is the danger of heating too greatly the Wall through which the exhaust pipe passes. Heated air passing upwardly about the wall heater or the casing thereof and thence upwardly around the exhaust pipe or flue, raises the temperature of the wall to a dangerously high degree if efiicient heating is to be obtained from the wall heater itself.

An object of this invention is to provide a means whereby efiicient heating is obtained while at the same time providing means for eliminating heat from the flue and protecting the flue against the overheating of the walls. A further object is to provide, in combination with a wall heater, an economizer which uses the warm flue gases for heating additional room air over and above that which is heated by the wall heater, while at the same time providing a separate stream of cooling air for protecting the wall at the upper end of the economizer and flue. A still further object is to provide a structure in which one or a plurality of cooling streams are employed in connection with the flue, the streams being introduced at the points where greatest danger of overheating is present. Other specific objects and advantages will appear as the specification proceeds.

The invention is shown, in an illustrative embodiment, by the accompanying drawing, in which- Figure 1 is a broken, perspective view, showing the wall heater applied to a wall and with the flue or outlet pipes extending there-above; and Fig 2, a broken, sectional view.

In the illustration given, 10 designates the casing of a wall heater having side walls 10a, the heater communicating with the space between the panels 11 and 12 which form the wall. The casing 10 extends forwardly of the wall near the bottom portion of the room and is provided with an inlet 13 and with a vane-equipped outlet 14. This inlet and outlet communicate with the space within casing 10 between side walls 31 of the inner casing 32, which walls are spaced inwardly from casing side walls 19a. The combustion chamber 15 of the heater opens into the exhaust pipe 16 which then communicates with the flue 17 extending upwardly in the space between the panels 11 and 12. Since the wall heater structure described is well known in the art, a further detailed description is believed unnecessary.

In my new structure, I provide the upper portion of casing 10 with an air inlet casing portion or hood 19. I also provide a wall closure or barrier plate 18, which United States Patent 7 room. The spacer or closure plate extends beneath hood 19 and across the outer casing of the wall heater and forms a tight closure between the lower part of casing 10 and hood 19. Top partition 33 closes inner casing 32. All of the heated air within the outer casing 10 or the inner casing 32 is thus obliged to pass outwardly through the port 14 and none can escape upwardly past barrier plate 18.

The air inlet casing or hood 19 has a vaned or louvered inlet port 29 in the inclined top wall thereof and vaned side ports 21. The inlet casing may be rigidly secured to the barrier plate as shown. Communicating with the inlet chamber is an economizer or flue casing 22 which extends upwardly to provide a chamber around the flue 17. Air passing inwardly through the ports 20 and 21 passes upwardly through the pipe 22 and thence outwardly into the room again through the outlet 23 which is preferably provided with a grill or vanes 24. In order to insure that all of the air thus heated will pass back into the room, I provide a deflector plate 25 which is Welded to a closure plate 26 which extends across the interior of the casing 22 and forms a tight closure therefor. The plate 26 is apertured so as to tightly receive the flue pipe 17.

Above the closure plate 26 I provide an air inlet opening 27 which may also be provided with a grill or with vanes 28 and thus permitting a new stream of cooling air to enter the pipe 22 above the closure 26 and thence to pass upwardly about the flue 17. The flue 17 may be connected to a discharge or exhaust pipe 29 and, if desired, the pipe 22 may be connected to another pipe 30 which carries the air upwardly about the pipe 29 to the point of exhaust. It will be understood that the pipes 29 and 30 may extend through the roof of the building or may exit from the building at any other desired point. The structure is particularly useful where a second story is employed and the pipes 29 and 30 pass upwardly through the second floor walls and thus insure that the temperature of such walls may be maintained below the dangerous temperature.

In the foregoing structure, the economizer uses the warm flue gases for heating additional room air over and above that which is heated by the wall heater. The cool air introduced through the inlets 20 and 21 travels upwardly in contact with the flue pipe and comes out through the opening 23, where it circulates into the 26 prevents the upward flow of the heated air of the economizer. Above the closure or spacer 26, cool air is allowed to enter and travels upward along the inner parts of the economizer, thereby preventing the surfaces from becoming dangerously hot. In order to vent appliances of this type where high ceilings are employed or on the second floor where the heater is installed in the lower floor and the vent passes through the walls of both the lower and upper stories, the pipes 29 and 30 are utilized and the pipe 30 allows the air drawn in through the opening 27 to circulate therein about the inner pipe 29, thereby lowering the temperature of the exterior walls and further allowing a fire stop to be placed at any point without interfering with the circulation of coolin air which is necessary to maintain these low temperatures.

In the foregoing structure, it will be observed that in addition to the air heated by the primary wall heater, there are introduced into the wall interior or into the casing 22 therein, at least two increments of cooling air. The first increment, which is entirely separate from the air heated by the wall heater, is that increment introduced through the openings 20 and 21, and it will be observed that this cool air is impinged upon the upper surface of the closure plate 18. Heated air flows over the under surface of plate 18 as it passes toward the closure 26 at the upper end of the economizer, and at this point the second increment of cool air passing inwardly through opening 27 is impinged. With the foregoing structure, it is found that the wall heater can be operated at relatively high temperatures for eflicient heating of the room, while at the same time the increments of cooling air introduced as above indicated maintain the wall temperatures always within safe limits and venting into the room additional heat obtained from the flue or, if desired, in the case of the uppermost increment,may be vented to atmosphere.

While, in the foregoing specification, I have set forth a specific structure in considerable detail for the purpose of illustrating the invention, it will be understood that such details of structure may be varied widely by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of my invention.

I claim: 1. In a structure of the character described, a wall heater having a lower casing provided with an inlet port and spaced therefrom an outlet port, said casing being adapted tobe positioned at least partially within a room wall at the bottom portion thereof, said casing having means forming a combustion chamber mounted therein whereby air flowing thereinto through said inlet port is heated as it rises toward said inlet port, said heater having a barrier plate forming a closure wall across said casing near the top thereof, a flue communicating at its lower end with said combustion chamber ,and adapted to extend upwardly above said barrier plate and between the spaced panels of a room wall, said lower casing including an inlet casing portion above said barrier plateand having an inclined top wall forming a hood extending outwardly from a panel of said wall and being provided. with an inlet openingtherethrough, a flue casing aboutsaid flue above said barrierplate and being spaced from said flue to define a flow passage thereabout, said flue casing having an inlet opening above and adjacent said barrier plate whereby air flowing into the flue casing sweeps that plate in heat exchange relation therewith, said flue casing having an enlarged opening spaced above said inlet opening but adapted to be below the ceiling level of a room space, and a closure plate within said flue casing dividing the same into flowseparatedpassage sections, said closure plate horizontal ly dividing said enlarged opening to form an outlet opening below the closure plate and an additional inlet opening above the closure plate, whereby within a room space, one increment of air flows into said heater casing through the inlet port thereof and after, being heated,

flows outwardly through the outlet port thereof, a second increment of air flows through said hood inlet opening, upwardly through said flue casing in heat exchange relation with said flue and outwardly through said flue casing outlet opening, and a third increment of air flows inwardly into .said flue casing through said additional inlet opening and upwardly in heat exchange relation with said flue.

2., In a wall heater and economizer structure, a verticallyextending lower heater casing for housing a cornbustion chaniber, an econornizer casing extending above said lower heating casing, a barrier plate extending across said lower heater casing beneath said economizer casing and near the top of said lower heater casing, a

flue extending through said barrier plate from within said lower heater casing and through said economizer casing and in spaced relation to the side walls thereof, the upper portion of the front of said lower heater casing providing a heated air outlet adjacent the under side of said barrier plate, the front portion of said lower heater casing projecting outwardly further than the front portion of said economizer casing, said projecting portion including the forward portion of said barrier plate and providingv a casing hood portion extending above and over said barrier plate forward portion, said casing hood portion being spaced from said barrier plate forward portion to provide a passage for the flow of air over the upper surface of said barrier plate forward portion, said economizer casing having an air inlet near the bottom of the front thereof and an air outlet above said inlet but adapted to be below the ceiling level of a room space, said economizer air inlet being positioned inwardly of said barrier plate forward portion and adjacent the upper surface of said barrier plate, said casing hood portion providing a room air inlet means outwardly of said economizer casing air inlet opening, said room air inlet means adapted to communicate on one side with the room atmosphere and on the other with said air passage over the upper surface of the forward portion of said barrier plate, and said room air inlet means being constructed and arranged to cause room air to pass over the said upper surface of the said barrier plate forward portion in heat exchange relation therewith.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 786,713 Bacon et al. Apr. 4, 1905 1,603,777 Derrough Nov. 30, 1926 2,093,492 Snyder Sept. 21, 1937 2,602,441 Hollingsworth et al July 8, 1952 2,702,539 Cayot Feb. 22, 1955 

